Perfected in love.
It didn't look like much, just an old rusted frame with fenders. But he bought it, and began the mammoth job of restoration. He stripped it down to get off all the rust. He scoured the country getting parts, carefully testing and shaping each one to fit. His original investment paled in comparison to the money and time now being poured in.
Anyone who happened to see it during this process thought “What a waste of time! This won't ever become what he's planning.” But he kept laboring on, building and burnishing. He'd go on for hours, telling anyone who would listen about his plans and dreams for this car.
One year passed, then two. There were times the task seemed never-ending, impossible. Would this “sows ear” never become the silk purse of his dream? Then one day, everything came together. Motor and transmission, once clogged and worthless, purred like a kitten. The soiled and torn interior was replaced with gleaming beauty. Sad sagging fenders were now high and tight. The faded paint was long hidden under layer after layer of glowing brightness. What had been valued cheaply had now become priceless, and those naysayers? Their open-mouthed admiration quickly became envy and desire, as his small investment was turned into tremendous value.
I didn't look like much. Beat up. Ravaged by sin. Cast on the junk heap of life. But He valued me, paid my debt, and went to work to transform me. Lots of times I doubted I would ever be what He was working toward. In many ways, I'm not there yet. Restoration is on-going. Frustration with failure in parts I thought had long since been perfected. But He keeps fixing, shaping, polishing. “One day,” He says, “one day, you'll be perfect. Those naysayers out there, they'll see what I saw back there in the junk yard. They'll be amazed at what you've become, and so will you.”
When the time comes to put a value on my life (and yours), it will be what He has done that will stand out as precious, making what was originally considered worthless now priceless. Nobody makes Him do it. He does it for fun – and love. Does He get His money's worth? The open-mouthed admiration of a cynical world seeing the result of love poured out without reservation is music to His ears.
Therefore, my beloved, ... work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Phil 2:12-14
